EDITORIAL — Visitors beware

Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, the Russian-American vlogger who was jailed here in the Philippines for being unruly and harassing people just so he could have content to post online, is now set for deportation to Russia after serving his sentence here.

Appearing in a press conference with Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla a few days ago, he looked different from when he had been sentenced last year. He had put on more weight, grew his hair out, and looked healthier. He also behaved and didn’t make faces like in the last press conference he was in.

“Let this be a reminder to all our visitors here in the Philippines that while we welcome tourists and treat them with respect, we also expect them to follow our laws, just as we do when we travel abroad,” said Remulla during the press conference, “we have no ill feelings against Vitaly. He has served his time, shown remorse, and is now a free man when he returns to Russia.”

While Zdorovetskiy has served his time, we don’t really know if he is remorseful for his actions or if he has changed. There’s always the possibility that he will return to his antics and his old obnoxious behavior once he is free. He might even make light of his stay in our prison and make it the topic of his next vlog, although we suspect he won’t have much footage of his time in prison.

What he does after he is free is his own business. The important thing is that he can be pointed to as an example of what happens to visitors who overstep their boundaries or make trouble during their stay here.

And considering it’s the Sinulog season and we have many visitors from abroad, they should know what passes for acceptable behavior. The same way Filipinos should also know what passes for acceptable behavior when they are also abroad.

Zdorovetskiy got lucky; he didn’t even spend a year in jail. While his sentence here was a rather short one we hope it was also long enough to teach him a lesson.